塵も積もればリッカとなる

Looking back at JAPN115, I feel like I’ve made pretty meaningful progress, though there is definitely much more struggle to come. My small talk has improved, along with my ability to ask questions about Japanese in the native language (and just hope that I understand the answer) which I believe is truly a survival skill for any language. This concept probably even deserves its own module in class.

 My grammar at least allows for much more varied sentence formats now, though my ability to use them fluidly is definitely questionable. I’m very happy with how much I’ve progressed in my ability to sayなきゃいけません which repeatedly left me tongue-tied in this class’ first speaking practice. しつれい、嚙みました。  

Culturally appropriate communication was tricky, in JAPN114 I worried about politeness levels, short form, long form, in JAPN115 my struggle comes from more subtle differences, do I use うれしい orしあわせ for happy?　For home should it be 家 orうち or even 所? And on the kanji end, I had made peace with the existence of Onyomi and Kunyomi readings but now you’re telling me there are 4 or 5 sounds 1 kanji can make? Rediculous.

1.      上　「うえ」　（Or 　じょう、あ、のぼ、うわ、かみ） On / Above / Origin

2.      上手　「じょうず」 Skilled / Good At

3.      上手い　「うまい」Skilled

4.      上る　「のぼる」To Climb

5.      上がる　「あがる」To Lift Up

6.      上唇　「うわくちびる」Upper Lip

7.      風上　「かぜかみ」Where the wind blows from (This usage is generally outdated)

I mean, we agree that that’s insane, right?

As for strategies, I used WaniKani a little less that I did for JAPN114 since I felt like the content didn’t align as often and I needed to dedicate a little more time to studying direcgtly what was needed for class, where I relied on the GENKI 2 textbook. I attempted to use ChatGPT to practice speaking, but despite repeated attempts to ask it to speak slowly it remained at a pace I found very hard to keep up with, while texting I asked it to have small talk with me as if I were 5 years old and that seemed to work alright, I could understand the questions for the most part and ChatGPT would deliver feedback where it thought appropriate, though usually the feedback was in much more advanced Japanese, so overall I don’t think I’d recommend this approach. I also had 1 iTalki session with a tutor, this feels embarrassing in much the same way Hanashimashou does at times, however, my instructor was not fluent in English which made attempting to communicate much more colorful at times. I also used Japanese subtitles instead of English to watch some shows. I can pick up a little more but certainly not at a point where this is practical. I finished translating the first 2 chapters of the manga Yotsuba&! during this course which was frustrating but an amazing feeling to accomplish. All of this helped to gain an understanding of where my abilities truly are. I probably know about 250-300 kanji at this point (about 150 on WaniKani alone), though writing them by hand still feels like a boss fight I’m under leveled for. And stroke order? Forget about it.

I suppose I’m proud of what I’ve done, even if there's more trash mountain to climb. I look forward to the JAPN200 levels, and maybe one day, have a real conversation with a native speaker without (internally) panicking.

せんりのみちもいっぽから！

石のようにかたい　そんな意志で

…

神様　ありがとう

運命のいたずらでも

めぐり逢えたことが

しあわせなの

- Ren'ai Circulation

By Kana Hanazawa